Linux Mint 14 Is Out

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday November 20, 2012 @06:08PM from the new-and-shiny dept.

New submitter medge_42 sends words that Linux Mint 14 has been released. Check out their list of features and release notes to see what's new. One version uses MATE 1.4, which includes some long-needed bug fixes as well as functional bluetooth and mate-keyring, its own character map, fast alt-tabbing, and improvements to Caja. The other version uses Cinnamon 1.6, which contains a huge number of fixes and new features including its own file browser, persistent workspaces and a window quicklist to go with them, a notifications applet, an improved sound applet, and alt-tab graphical improvements. MDM now supports legacy GDM 2 themes and userlists, and has improved user switching. Gedit 2.30 has replaced Gedit 3, and MintStick replaces USB-ImageWriter.

30 of 129 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Good but... by Andy+Prough · 2012-11-20 18:23 · Score: 2

I still find that for sheer ability to work on nearly any system and those with minimal resources, it's an excellent idea to keep a Mint 10 LXDE live DVD laying around. Darn thing will run on just about anything. It's practically become my new Knoppix.
1. Re:Good but... by Taco+Cowboy · 2012-11-20 18:44 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Why would the newer versions be less capable?
  New versions are all fine except for the problem of BLOAT
  
  --
  Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
2. Re:Good but... by ifiwereasculptor · 2012-11-20 18:56 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  They tend to require more resources. Also, newer versions of drivers aren't as throughly tested on old hardware and can act very funny. Believe it or not, getting any modern Linux distro to run well on my old Athlon XP is actually a bit of a challenge (video and usb ports can be particularly problematic). And now, with llvmpipe being en vogue (the only thing it renders on slower machines is them unusable), things are worsening rapidly. Also, older ditros fit on CDs and lots of old machines don't even have DVD drives. Having said that, my favorite course of action on slower machines is Debian stable, with select packages from testing or unstable (which is getting harder to do, for some reason - it's very annoying and unexplicable when apt won't update hplip without pulling gnome-shell).
3. Re:Good but... by kh31d4r · 2012-11-20 20:37 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  all lyes!
4. Re:Good but... by DickBreath · 2012-11-21 03:08 · Score: 2
  
  live DVD laying around.
  Lying around. Lying
  It may not be corruption of the language. It may simply be evolution of the language. Language changes over time. Speakers choose the most suitable word for their porpoises. If you suggest otherwise then you are laying.
  
  --
  
  I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
5. Re:Good but... by mcgrew · 2012-11-21 04:50 · Score: 2
  
  He's calling you sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide.
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
Horray ! by Celarent+Darii · 2012-11-20 18:25 · Score: 2

So many volunteers and so many packages - just thanks everyone for another release !
So outdated! by Billly+Gates · 2012-11-20 18:30 · Score: 5, Funny

It has too many things that help content creation. The gui supports the mouse, gives you the ability to change it, and worse lets you have more than one Windows open at a time!
Screw that. Where is the crappy cell phone interface? I want to be hip and have my productivity limited so I can save 10 whole pixels on my 27 inch dual screens and tweet to my friends, which is why I purchased my Icore7 extreme edition! Now I can read a document and cut and paste things into another app at the same time which is sooo 2000s.
This is too technical to get my brain around Mate and this whole concept of multitasking that I need my shiny things back. Going back to WIndows 8.

--
http://saveie6.com/
1. Re:So outdated! by fbobraga · 2012-11-20 23:20 · Score: 2
  
  Remember: the new DEs are not made for your setup, but for the most common...
Looks tempting .. by blackpaw · 2012-11-20 18:30 · Score: 5, Insightful

Ramblings ...
I love my KDE 4.9x/Kubuntu 12.10 install except for the flakiness that the poxy virtuoso/nepomuk/akonadi brings to it. Thats what I find attractive about the gnome derivatives - they haven't bet the farm on integrating their environments with the buggy unstable CPU hogging piece of crap that is nepomuk/virtuoso.
But I find gnome unattractive compared to KDE and I dislike Unity & Gnome Shell. But I do like where Cinnamon is going and this latest rev looks quite good.
If only I could find a decent gnome based Pim - I love Kontact, when its not being ass reamed by nepomuk/virtuoso. Thunderbird is getting creaky, Evolution is OK but not as slick as Kontact.
1. Re:Looks tempting .. by Gadget_Guy · 2012-11-21 00:48 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Disabling akonadi disables kontact, unfortunately
  Parrots are not the only fruit, apparently.
  Greetings, comrade. Your code phrase has been authenticated. Proceed to the safe house for debriefing.
2. Re:Looks tempting .. by ifiwereasculptor · 2012-11-21 07:56 · Score: 2
  
  If you haven't noticed, "akonadi" and "nepomuk", backwards, are "idanoka" and "kumopen", japanese words meaning, respectively, "torturer of users" and "that which cripples hard drives".
upgrade? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 18:36 · Score: 3, Interesting

can you upgrade a mint 13 system?
1. Re:upgrade? by MurukeshM · 2012-11-20 18:56 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Not directly, since the upgrade tool packaged is for Ubuntu, and well create a horrible mix of Ubuntu Quantal and Mint 13 if used (if it even worked at all). There are alternate instructions provided at http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2
2. Re:upgrade? by jones_supa · 2012-11-21 01:10 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Better yet, keep system and home on separate partitions. Then you just only reformat the system partition during reinstall.
LTS by Andy+Prough · 2012-11-20 18:42 · Score: 3, Informative

For production machines, you would use the Long Term Support version, which currently comes with 5 years of support.
Coming from a Windows background by Shemmie · 2012-11-20 19:34 · Score: 2

I am loving Mint. I had a look at Mint 13 a while ago, and Ubuntu 12.10. I downloaded the Mint 14 RC a few nights ago.

And I liked what I saw enough to dive into something Linux-ie on my desktop. And I decided I prefer KDE for my desktop. And I prefer regular updates to big version changes, so I opted for LMDE KDE. I actually stuck around long enough to have an opinion on gnome vs KDE. The KDE menu is awesome - like a highly customizable version of the Windows 7 Start - very impressed.

So I'm dual booting Windows 8 and Mint - and Mint is getting a lot more use at the moment. In fact, if I could just find a way to get the bloody Steam beta to install on Mint, I'd spend even more time there. But I know it will come as they sort things out.
Mate on Mint = Awesome by BrookHarty · 2012-11-20 19:47 · Score: 4, Interesting

I switched to Mint when Ubuntu forced Gnome 3/Unity on me. Been extremely happy except one big issue. Mate uses GTK 2 but newer apps use GTK 3, so you get stuck in this world of mixed themes that looks bad. Found a nice gtk 2/3 clearlooks compatible theme, so I end up with Mate DM with GTK 3 apps looking normal again. Best thing, Compiz still works...
While I'm very grateful of what Canonical has done for the Linux community and have paid for services and software to show my support, I cant take the design choices or direction the company has went seriously. Gnome 3 has chosen a new direction, one that I don't need or want. Ubuntu is embracing that direction.
Mint right now is the best balance I can find out there. Keeps the popular Ubuntu base, but with Mint or Cinnamon DE which is hands down superior to Gnome 3 for the desktop.
1. Re:Mate on Mint = Awesome by mrbluze · 2012-11-20 20:13 · Score: 2
  
  Mint right now is the best balance I can find out there. Keeps the popular Ubuntu base, but with Mint or Cinnamon DE which is hands down superior to Gnome 3 for the desktop.
  I agree, in most cases Mint is the best general purpose Linux distro out there at the moment, and it is very slick indeed. The problem is that Windows has produced an OS that looks stupid now, but the strategy is there because it is clear that displays intended for interaction are all going to be multitouch. It is just too easy to do now to not consider it standard in the future.
  I am waiting and waiting for the Linux community to come to this realization that desktop linux has to take into account a mouseless touch-screen userbase that is set to grow rapidly, especially once GNU/Linux distros appear on more tablet PC's.
  
  --
  Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
2. Re:Mate on Mint = Awesome by Waccoon · 2012-11-20 22:14 · Score: 2
  
  Mate uses GTK 2 but newer apps use GTK 3, so you get stuck in this world of mixed themes that looks bad.
  That is not a big issue. It's a feature. A big issue would be old stuff (GTK 2) not working at all, which seems to becoming the norm with other OSes these days.
3. Re:Mate on Mint = Awesome by Raumkraut · 2012-11-20 23:19 · Score: 2
  
  I am waiting and waiting for the Linux community to come to this realization that desktop linux has to take into account a mouseless touch-screen userbase that is set to grow rapidly, especially once GNU/Linux distros appear on more tablet PC's.
  Where have you been these past couple of years? Gnome 3? Unity? KDE Plasma Active?
4. Re:Mate on Mint = Awesome by lennier · 2012-11-21 09:50 · Score: 2
  
  You need to have one interface for mouse+keyboard and one for touch, you can't have the same for both.
  Agreed. But it's a far bigger problem that, after decades of preaching object-oriented loosely-bound separation of concerns and Gang of Four pattern-language model-view-controller dogma, changing an interface apparently still requires rewriting all our application software from scratch. Instead of, just, you know, changing the interface, which all that MVC stuff was supposed to take care of.
  How did that happen, OOP advocates?
  
  --
  You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
Looks interesting by Gordonjcp · 2012-11-20 22:57 · Score: 2

But when is it going to ship with Unity? The desktop is so old-fashioned and clunky looking.
Re:Full disc encryption by EmagGeek · 2012-11-21 00:26 · Score: 2, Interesting

You know the full-disk encryption in Ubuntu stores the passphrase in cleartext on sector 0x7Gh on the hard disk, don't you?
Re:If only... by number6x · 2012-11-21 00:35 · Score: 2

You can
You pick which desktop environment to use at login. Your choice becomes the default so you don't have to choose every time you log in.
Cinnamon on Ubuntu by dmt0 · 2012-11-21 00:36 · Score: 2

I installed Cinnamon on Ubuntu 12.10 through a PPA and I'm liking it a lot. Is there any reason why I would want to switch from this setup over to the actual Mint?
1. Re:Cinnamon on Ubuntu by jones_supa · 2012-11-21 01:23 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Good question and it brings up a point which I have been wondering. Why was Mint released as a complete distribution and not just a collection of packages for Ubuntu? They could have released the tasty bits (Cinnamon, MATE) only as PPAs, no need to duplicate the whole Ubuntu base.
2. Re:Cinnamon on Ubuntu by 0123456 · 2012-11-21 02:51 · Score: 2
  
  Because I totally want to give random PPAs root access to my machines.
  I trust an actual distro used by large numbers of people far more than a PPA few have ever heard of.
3. Re:Cinnamon on Ubuntu by CosaNostra+Pizza+Inc · 2012-11-21 03:01 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I am currently using Ubuntu 12.04 with Cinnamon (through PPA). I plan to replace all this with Mint 14 Maya (Cinnamon) this weekend. I've heard it's not just the choice in DEs that sets Mint apart from Ubuntu. Ubuntu only provides free open-source packages in its software library (along with some optional non-free proprietary stuff). Mint supposedly provides most of the Ubuntu open-source packages, plus the option to install free proprietary software. This sounds appealing to me because I have to use Oracle Java for a lot of software dev. I usually end up installing Java straight from Oracle's web site because I don't trust 3rd party ppa. So, on Mint, I'm assuming, I can install packages for Oracle Java and other stuff directly from Mint's repository.
Re:I don't get it... by jones_supa · 2012-11-21 01:14 · Score: 2

On this day in history thousands of new versions of software were released.
Many of them far cooler, way more interesting and useful than this one.
If you have found something even cooler, you must submit them as articles to Slashdot. Ever noticed that "xxxxx writes" in beginning of each article? That's how stuff gets published here.